“Here comes Sally,” said Greg Dixon as he peered down the trail at Spring Valley Nature Preserve. A woman approached with an energetic dog pacing in front of her.
He broke from his work and set down his drill. He greeted Sally and her dog Rosie, who danced around them as they caught up with each other. Sally, who lives just off trail next to where they chatted, recalled the tornado that had blown through the nature preserve about a year ago.
Trees came down across the trails. Sally and her husband lost two cars during the storm and were thankful that their home was safe. She and Dixon said their goodbyes and he returned to work, slightly more cheerful than before. Sally’s husband, Dixon said, was part of the crew who helped him chainsaw downed trees after the storm so that people could return to their scenic adventures.
Dixon has dedicated his life to spreading smiles around Licking County for years. With his organization of the ABDO-men in the Granville Fourth of July Parade and his construction of countless trails at the 45-acres of the Spring Valley Nature Preserve, Dixon’s love of the community has soaked into the very soil.
In late March, Dixon’s feet traced the paths he’s carved through the Spring Valley Nature Preserve.
At 71, Granville-born Dixon still remains active. He carried a small pack on his back as he trudged his way up Robert’s Ridge Trail. Sporadically, he stopped in his tracks. Not to catch his breath, but to admire the landscape around him.
His eyes peered at and around the trees surrounding the trail. He pointed to the scars downed trees had left. Sawdust and the remnants of shifted trails were the result of tornados that had passed directly through Spring Valley Nature Preserve. It horrified those who lived directly adjacent to the preserve. The storm spelled lots of extra trail time maintaining the trails for Dixon. While none of the houses surrounding Spring Valley faced major damage, Dixon and other residents nearby took to the trails with chainsaws in hand. They began slicing the trees that had fallen to restore the trails to their former glory.
He paced forward. After working the trails of Spring Valley since 1992 – when the property was still a well-loved community pool – Dixon knows his way through the woods like the back of his hand.
Spring Valley Pool was “like its own little village. Parents would drop you off, or you would find your way out, and you’d just spend all day out there and head home,” Dixon said.
After Dixon graduated from Granville High School in 1968, he attended university at Lincoln Memorial University and also Ohio University.
“I decided that I really wasn’t getting anything out of college – except school loans. So I quit. Never did finish,” Dixon said.
Afterwards, Dixon went on to work construction for a general contractor, before he started his career at the post office. Dixon worked in Granville, Johnstown and in the Zanesville Post Office. The latter is where he spent 24 years of his career as a postmaster.
Dixon stopped on the journey through the woods at a small trail marker. There, he spotted a sign that seemingly needed repair. One of its signs appeared slightly more faded than the others. He dropped his small backpack to the ground, unfurling it, and reached in to find a small power drill, a bag of screws and a pouch of replacement signs. He began to disassemble the faded sign – a common task when he hikes through the preserve.
“If somebody really wanted this sign, which is worth about $2 right? They could come out with a screwdriver sometimes, sometimes they’ll try to pry them off. Doesn’t make any sense,” said Dixon while firing away with his drill. “Yeah, who knows? Probably something I would have done as a kid.”
The signs and accompanying posts were constructed by a Boy Scout seeking to earn the Eagle Scout rank. However, since then more trails have been added and repairs remain constant.
Dixon’s true passion has always been the outdoors. Dixon, an avid hiker, has traveled across the country for backpacking expeditions. Most notable were his trips to the Grand Canyon and to the John Muir Trail, a 211-mile trail that runs from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney in California. It took him about 20 days.
“For 12 days, I couldn’t get a hold of my wife, really, to tell her how great time I was having. She didn’t know whether we were in good shape, bad shape,” Dixon said.
When he and his wife finally got back in touch, they both wept on the phone.
“We were on top of Forester Pass, like 13,000 feet, or something like that. It was quite a good feeling,” said Dixon.
But “home” for Dixon will always be the Spring Valley Nature Preserve. Its trails seem to bring him a sense of serenity. Dixon lived with his wife on Sunset Drive – just steps away from the nature preserve – until she passed away in April 2023. When they lived directly next to the nature preserve, he would hike the trails nearly every day.
“There’s been a couple of times I’ve been wanting to write a letter to the editor and tell them what a great place it is,” Dixon said about the preserve’s growth in popularity. “Usually I tear it up.”
Dixon wants to keep his little slice of heaven to himself. He enjoys the quiet of the trail.
“Taking a hike with Greg through these woods, you can learn about why the trails got their names, watch as he reflexively clears hanging limbs or underbrush that might trip another hiker or block a path, and never once have to think about where you are because he knows these woods like the back of his hand,” wrote Amy Dell, who nominated Dixon for The Reporting Project’s inaugural 10-over-60 initiative. “As someone lucky enough to have been his neighbor for 17 years, Greg is simply one of the most quietly generous and kind people I have ever had the pleasure to know.”
Dixon began to slug his way across Daniel’s Way, one of his favorite trails on the preserve. While many of them do not have meaningful names, Daniel’s Way is a bit different. Daniel was a young boy who lived just up the hill from the scenic trail. He passed, to Dixon’s recollection, about five years ago. Before Daniel passed away, one of his favorite activities was to watch the deer out his window as they passed through the woods. Now, a bench marks Daniel’s favorite viewpoint on the trail.
Near the end of the loop, Dixon walked to a couple benches dedicated to his late wife Megan.
He stood in front of the final bench, placed next to a maple tree that was planted in her honor.
“When the leaves explode in the fall, it’ll be vibrant like she was,” said Dixon.
Andrew Theophilus wrote for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. After graduation, Andrew joined the staff at the Idaho Mountain Express in Ketchum, Idaho as a general assignment reporter.